After the rapid expansion of bird life in spring, summer is accompanied by a commencing reaction. Not that the birds diminish in number — on the contrary; but they are less conspicuous and audible. The ptarmigan no longer cackle; only occasionally does one hear the cheep of the snow bunting or the cry of the gull. It is the time of family life, and the birds have laid their eggs. At Eskimo Point the Eskimos collected quantities of goose eggs at the end of June. It is now the spiders and ground beetles which reign supreme. Flies and mosquitos are beginning to appear but are not yet troublesome. At Eskimo Point this did not happen until the end of June, whereas at Baker Lake, which lies three parallels more to the north, this occurred about fourteen days later. Then the air is as if it were shattered into a mist of swirring and dancing spots, emitting an incessant, slender treble supported by the humming bass of myriads of flies, large and small. Now and then a passing humble bee mingles its deep buzz with the melody, and a yellow-green butterfly flits with apparently aimless darts over the heather. The buffalo gnats arrive later than the mosquitos and are almost just as unpleasant. The further south, the more mosquitos; near the timber line life is almost intolerable because of them.
During the early summer — end of June till the beginning of July — the caribou cows drop their calves; only later on does the last great advance come from the south, when the old bulls nake their appearance in the country. The great caribou trek appeared at Baker Lake in the latter days of July 1922. Seen through a field-glass from the little island of Orpiktujoq, a few kilometres out in the lake, the whole of the south shore seemed to be alive with animals. There were caribou in thousands, as far as the eye could see, and an Eskimo who tried to go from one camp to another, about two hours' walk away, had to turn back for fear of being trampled to death. In the worst mosquito time the caribou are often driven almost mad and lose a good deal of fat through running vainly about, trying to escape from their countless enemies. They scatter in small herds about the country and ascend the hills or go down to the coast where there is more wind. Gadflies (Oedemagena tarandi) also plague them, and the skins are often useless later on owing to the many holes made by the gadfly larvæ.
In August the caribou are again on the wander southwards, and it is when summer is merging into autum that the Eskimos' most important caribou hunting takes place. Then the flesh is fat and tasty and, as the frost soon appears, it can keep all the winter; the skins are suitable for new winter frocks, and the caribou move in such great herds that it is an easy matter to obtain a number of animals
